Sydney School of Public Health, Charles Perkins Centre D17, Level 6 Hub, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
School of Medicine Sydney, University of Notre Dame Australia, 160 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Australia.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2018 Jun 28;16(1):55. doi: 10.1186/s12961-018-0326-9.
Citation of research in policy documents has been suggested as an indicator of the potential longer-term impacts of research. We investigated the use of research citations in childhood obesity prevention policy documents from New South Wales (NSW), Australia, considering the feasibility and value of using research citation as a proxy measure of research impact.
We examined childhood obesity policy documents produced between 2000 and 2015, extracting childhood obesity-related references and coding these according to reference type, geographical origin and type of research. A content analysis of the policy documents examined where and how research was cited in the documents and the context of citation for individual research publications.
Over a quarter (28%) of the policy documents (n = 86) were not publicly available, almost two-thirds (63%) contained references, half (47%) cited obesity-related research and over a third (41%) of those containing references used unorthodox referencing styles, making reference extraction laborious. No patterns, in terms of the types of documents more likely to cite research, were observed and the number of obesity research publications cited per document was highly variable. In total, 263 peer-reviewed and 94 non-peer-reviewed obesity research publications were cited. Research was most commonly cited to support a policy argument or choice of solution. However, it was not always possible to determine how or why individual publications were cited or whether the cited research itself had influenced the policy process. Content analysis identified circumstances where research was mentioned or considered, but not directly cited.
Citation of research in policy documents in this case did not always provide evidence that the cited research had influenced the policy process, only that it was accessible and relevant to the content of the policy document. Research citation across these public health policy documents varied greatly and is unlikely to be an accurate reflection of actual research use by the policy agencies involved. The links between citation and impact may be more easily drawn in specific policy areas or types of documents (e.g. clinical guidelines), where research appraisal feeds directly into policy recommendations.
引用研究文献被认为是研究潜在长期影响的指标。我们调查了澳大利亚新南威尔士州（新州）儿童肥胖预防政策文件中研究引用的使用情况，考虑了使用研究引用作为研究影响替代指标的可行性和价值。
我们审查了 2000 年至 2015 年期间制作的儿童肥胖政策文件，提取了与儿童肥胖相关的参考文献，并根据参考文献类型、地理来源和研究类型对其进行了编码。对政策文件进行了内容分析，以检查研究在文件中的引用位置和方式，以及个别研究出版物的引用背景。
超过四分之一（28%）的政策文件（n=86）不可公开获取，近三分之二（63%）包含参考文献，一半（47%）引用了与肥胖相关的研究，超过三分之一（41%）包含参考文献的文件使用了非传统的引用方式，使得参考文献的提取非常费力。没有观察到哪种类型的文件更有可能引用研究的模式，而且每份文件引用的肥胖研究出版物数量差异很大。总共引用了 263 篇同行评议和 94 篇非同行评议的肥胖研究出版物。研究最常被引用是为了支持政策论点或解决方案的选择。然而，并不总是能够确定为什么引用特定出版物，或者引用的研究本身是否影响了政策过程。内容分析确定了提到或考虑研究的情况，但没有直接引用。
在这种情况下，政策文件中对研究的引用并不总是提供证据表明引用的研究影响了政策过程，而只是表明它是可获取的，并且与政策文件的内容相关。这些公共卫生政策文件中的研究引用差异很大，不太可能准确反映相关政策机构实际使用的研究。在特定政策领域或类型的文件（例如临床指南）中，引用和影响之间的联系可能更容易建立，因为研究评估直接反馈到政策建议中。
